Cyber-Security Countermeasures and Vulnerabilities to Prevent Social-Engineering Attacks
Ramiz Salama, Fadi Al‐Turjman · 2023
Nowadays, technology has advanced in such a rapid way that every simple task that has been manual for centuries has been automated by machines and the way they are programmed. While these technologies have made our lives much more comfortable, there have been a few concerns as to their safety. Such scenarios cause us to think about the negative aspects or the potentially threatening scenarios that come with these technological advancements, such as financial transactions, identification fraudulence, or even information theft which makes newcomers to the technology to be cautious and as a result they tend to avoid these advancements because they see these comforts as a potential security risk. Thankfully, there is some research being carried out which informs us about the potential risks and how we can prevent ourselves from becoming a victim of such risks or vulnerabilities. These days, people are more vulnerable to be attacked virtually than ever before as the digital era continues to progress at an exponential rate. As cyber security improves, software vulnerabilities decrease. Currently, the most widely used and efficient cyber-attacks are actually aimed at social rather than technical aspects; as a matter of fact, these mischievous deeds are so effective that they are used to assist the vast majority of cyber-attacks. The prospect of social engineering is the use of human vulnerabilities or errors to be successful in achieving harmful goals. With regards to information security, a person with ill intent exploits human trust to get around safeguards and gain access to sensitive data. Cybercriminals persuade their victims to violate security protocols, revealing sensitive information that can be used in a more focused attack. Although technological advancements have a role to play in minimizing the impacts of societal issues, research has concluded that it doesn’t matter how much we implement cyber security in new applications to prevent attacks, in the end we can never factor out the human effect of this equation.